Soup and Pudding Dinner

Chicken Noodle Soup 
Toffee Bread and Butter Pudding

A warming dinner for the cold evenings, very quick and easy to put together (providing you make your stock earlier if you are using fresh).

Serves 4

For the chicken noodle soup

2 litres chicken stock.  (I made my stock with the carcass of a chicken roasted with lemon and Tarragon, so there was plenty of flavour.)
Cover the chicken carcass with water, add 1 carrot, 2 sticks celery and a bay leaf, bring to the boil then simmer, covered, for around 2 hours.  Strain through a seive and leave to cool then skim any fat from the top.  If necessary add water to make 2 litres.

You can also use stock cubes or ready made, shop bought stock.

200g noodles or long spaghetti, broken into 1 1/2" pieces, I used wholemeal spaghetti.
1 large onion, finely chopped
A little chopped parsley to garnish
A few drops of toasted sesame oil to garnish (optional)
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Place the stock, spaghetti or noodles and onion in a large pot and bring to the boil, simmer for 20-25 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.

Serve in warm bowls with crusty bread and garnish with Parsley and a few drops of toasted sesame oil.

Toffee Bread and Butter Pudding

150ml milk

150ml double cream

1 vanilla pod, split then the seeds scraped out

Butter + a little for greasing the dish

6 slices good quality white bread

2 bananas. peeled and sliced
3 eggs
55g caster sugar

For the caramel
100g caster sugar

Butter the bread then cut each slice into 4 triangles.  Layer an oven-proof dish with the bread and slices of banana.

Pre-heat the oven to 190C

Mix together the eggs, seeds from the vanilla pod, milk and cream and stir in the sugar.  Pour the mixture over the bread and banana and let it stand for 5 minutes then bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes.

Melt the sugar in a pan over a low heat until the sugar melts and turns golden.

Remove the bread and butter pudding from the oven and carefully, (it's very hot) drizzle the toffee over the top, let it stand for 5 minutes to let the caramel harden before serving with cream or ice-cream.